Entertainment

Still Talk Via IRC? Want To Start? Give Mibbit A Try.

How do you prefer to socialize and converse with people (and the occasional inhuman entity) on the Web in real or near-real time? Instant messaging? Services like Twitter and Pownce? If you’re anything like us here at Mashable, you dabble in each somewhat.

But what if you happen to like doing things old-school? No, no, not email. That stuff’s way too slow and banal. Rather, what if you’re into that popular medium of old called IRC? Yes, IRC. Internet Relay Chat. Our own Stan Schroeder admits to whiling away a few moments here and there on such discussions. Some of you might toast the technology yourselves. If so, here’s something that you may find quite appealing. It’s called Mibbit.

Highlighted by Josh Lowensohn over at CNET’s Webware channel today, Mibbit looks to put a fresh(er) face on the aged chat platform of IRC, which hit its stride back in the Web 1.0 era when kilobits were still the measurement of choice for most Internet users. Mibbit provides an entirely Web-based solution for maintaining connections to multiple servers, easily manage favorites, and generally just enjoy IRC again. Or at least enjoy it more than you do already. (You know who you are, diehards.)

The magic behind Mibbit, which seems to have first shown its face in public sometime back in January, is Ajax, which ensures that things move steady and smooth. No need to click your browser’s refresh. Discussions flow automatically down the page. Also, if you want to embed an interesting talk on an external webpage, you may do so without having to really work too hard at it. Embed code can be provided.

There isn’t very much else to explain. After all, this is still IRC we’re talking about. But all in all, Mibbit is an attractive option for veterans users of the technology, and perhaps even those who’ve long wished to join the fold, but always considered it too difficult to get a good start with. Mibbit certainly helps to make things easy. And lets not forget. IRC still has its uses. It’s by no means the most popular social conversation engine of the times. But if we ever have to revert back to simpler methods to get our messages across to one another, IRC just so happens to be a very reliant safety. Particularly in cases where high concentrations of Internet users are found.

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